Lake House Progress

October 23, 2014

{one of my favorite photos ever by Noboyuki Taguchi Photography… I can stare it for quite a while, just thinking about what’s going through the different kids’ heads… especially love the little daredevil leader and the face & body language of the last kid to jump. If I were one of them, I’d probably be the one who looks like he’s concentrating and was quite possibly the first to jump, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t scared. This photo is like the essence of lake life as a kid. }

Things have been progressing at the lake house, and our builder, Sid Cutts of Corbitt Hills Construction, sent us some post-demo photos yesterday!! I’m telling you, it’s KILLING me not to be there, seeing everything. I CANNOT WAIT to be able to visit Lake Gaston and actually spend the night night instead of driving 3 hours down and 3 hours back up in a day like we usually do!!

Floors, woodwork and doors have been removed throughout. Almost all signs of pink have left the building.

When we visited last week, we decided to turn a small office in the basement (in photo below, the room through the doorway on the right) into a bunk room (with capacity for 2 built-in bunks/ 4 total beds) by removing a large closet under the stairs to open up the room a bit, making room for bunks. I am SO EXCITED about this because we were able to add another bedroom to the house!!! We’re hoping for lots of visitors so this extra bedroom is key. We added a small office space for my dad in the back of the basement family room (in left side of photo below) where there was a bit of an awkward shape due to the shape of the kitchen where the window is (pic above.)

In the office, we’ll do built-ins along the angles for a small but functional space. The framing is in place and it will have a set of double pocket doors, so he can have them open when he’s working and close it up when he’s finished to protect it from my brood.

We’re adding larger glass exterior doors to entire the basement to lighten it up, but it’s already a walk-out and has a fair amount of light. Eventually, it’ll become a big family room space with a TV, game table, etc.

On the other side of the house, there’s a second (large) bedroom in the basement, which will become a guest master bedroom and it’s currently really dark. (pic below… creepy dark.) We’re adding windows on one wall and a wall of doors on the wall that faces the lake (underneath of a deck above) so it should feel fairly light when we’re finished. We’ve added an entrance from the bedroom to the bathroom, which we enlarged considerably by stealing space from a large closet and hallway just outside the bathroom. (Framing is already in place in the pic below for the newly expanded bathroom)

As much as I really want my bedroom to be the one on the top floor of the house with gorgeous lake views, I’m guessing we’ll be spending many-a-nights in here so we can be closer to our little guys who will be around the corner in the bunk room. I’m hoping I can make it great enough that I WANT this one more than the other… but I’m a sunlight fiend, so it all hinges on how much the wall of doors and three windows lighten it up.

I’m working on the kitchen plans this week and will be back soon to share!! In the meantime, here’s an inspiration photo I’ve been thinking about a lot for the kitchen & great room palette:

{image via pinterest}

And I’m thinking I’ll do the basement walls in a blue similar to this one: